New publication (The Power to Dismiss, Oxford University Press)

Oxford University Press has just accepted my manuscript, “The Power to Dismiss: Trade Unions and the Regulation of Job Security in Western Europe”, for publication. The book will be available in mid-2014. The book analyses the historical development of job security regulations, i.e. restrictions on employers’ right to hire and fire, in Western Europe from the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the 21st century. The book is based on empirical evidence from eight Western European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland), and answers three questions: First, how can we explain the historical development of job security regulations in industrialized Western democracies? Second, how can we explain contemporary cross-national variation in the level and types of job security regulations that we observe today? And finally, why, in the context of clear incentives and policy consensus, has it historically proven to be so difficult for some countries to reform job security regulations?